Asako I & II

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

U.S. Premiere · Q&A with Ryûsuke Hamaguchi on October 6

This film has no current screenings

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Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

2018

Japan/France

119 minutes

Q&A with Ryûsuke Hamaguchi on October 6

A truly original Vertigo riff, based on a novel by Tomoka Shibasaki, Asako I & II is an enchanting, unnerving paean to the notion of love as a trance state. Asako (Erika Karata) and Baku (Masahiro Higashide) share an intense, all-consuming romance—but one day the moody Baku ups and vanishes. Two years later, having moved from Osaka to Tokyo, Asako meets Baku’s exact double. Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who gained plenty of attention for 2015’s five-hour-plus Happy Hour, has returned with a beguiling and mysterious film that traces the trajectory of a love—or, to be accurate, two loves—found, lost, displaced, and regained. A Grasshopper Film release.